“No one wants you. Not like I do,” Balladyn continued. “I had to hurt you to break you and make you into the Dark that will bring the others to their knees. Just say yes, and I can free you from those chains.”
Rhi wanted the chains off desperately, but not enough to give up the last of her light.
“No one will come for you,” Balladyn said, a note of glee in his voice. “Especially not your Dragon King. He turned you away, remember? He released you, forsaking your love. He cast you aside like a piece of filth he couldn’t get rid of fast enough.”
No!
The shout echoed in her mind even as Rhi began to shake with rage.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Con burst through door after door in the dungeon looking for Balladyn. He hadn’t been able to free Kiril or stop whatever was attacking Shara, but he could kill the bastard who’d instigated it all.
Rhys was on the opposite side of the hall searching for Rhi with no luck. It would be just like Balladyn to move Rhi at the last minute before they could reach her.
Con kicked through the next door and stilled when his gaze landed on Balladyn squatting beside someone. Con barely recognized the figure as Rhi, and he probably wouldn’t have realized it was her except for the fact she began to glow.
Whatever Balladyn was whispering in her ear wasn’t working as he’d expected, if his face was any indication. Balladyn got to his feet and took a couple of hasty steps back.
Rhys rushed through the door and skidded to a stop beside Con. “Oh shit.”
“There’s no escaping what comes next,” Con said to Balladyn.
Balladyn’s head snapped to him. “There is for me.”
In the next second, Balladyn was gone. Con shouted to Rhys to warn Kiril. Rhys rushed back out as Con started toward Rhi to try and calm her before she destroyed the fortress. Only once before had Con witnessed the explosive power of her fury. When the dust had settled, there had been nothing left of the realm.
“Rhi!” he shouted as he neared. “Rhi, you need to focus. Think of creating, not destroying!”
His words weren’t penetrating her mind as the glowing increased. Con stopped before her and touched her, only to jerk his hands back when her skin burned him. Her head lifted, the strange glow shooting from her eyes as well. She opened her mouth and screamed as the glow burst from her lips.
Suddenly her arms were outstretched, the clinking of the chains drowned out by her shout. Con looked on worriedly as something lifted her upward until she hung in midair and the glow grew blinding.
There was half a second of silence before the explosion from Rhi shook the very foundation of the compound. Con flew backward from the shock wave. He slammed into the far wall, the impact knocking the air from his lungs just as the walls crumbled around him, trapping his arm.
Con covered his head with his unpinned arm as chunks of stone rained down on him from the ceiling. It took several minutes before the collapse stopped. Once it did, he lifted his head and shook off the dirt and debris. His gaze searched the rubble looking for a glimpse of Rhi. He found her lying, unmoving, atop a pile of stone, no longer glowing.
Con tried to rise, but his right arm was well and truly trapped. With his free hand, he shoved off the stone nearest him, but it did nothing to help. He continued to push stones away as rapidly as he could. Rhi was vulnerable right now, and it was also the perfect time to get her somewhere safe before she woke and repeated the process.
He had to see to Rhi, Rhys, Kiril, and Shara so they could get out before any Dark found them. Con grunted as he rolled off a large stone that allowed him to almost get free. A movement caught his eye. He looked up to see a shape standing in the large hole in the wall near Rhi. The shape became that of a man who turned to him.
Anger spiked through Con when he recognized him. “Ulrik,” he said through clenched teeth.
His nemesis smiled slyly. “Did you think I wouldna hear she was taken?”
“Leave her.”
“Or what?” Ulrik asked. “Shall we finally battle, brother?”
Con jerked his pinned arm against the stone, and managed only to scrape a large portion of skin from his arm in his bid to get free. He ground his teeth together as he watched Ulrik walk to Rhi and squat beside her.
Ulrik chuckled softly before he lifted Rhi in his arms. She hung limply, the broken Chains of Mordare dangling from her wrists.
“This is the first of my many wins over you,” Ulrik said with a smile before he stood and walked away.
Con let his rage free. It erupted from him as he bellowed furiously and busted through the last of the stones. Blood ran down his arm from the rapidly healing wound as he raced after Ulrik, but it didn’t matter where he searched because Ulrik—along with Rhi—was gone.
*